Shale Barren Pussytoes

G. L. Stebbins (1936) and R. J. Bayer and Stebbins (1982) maintained that Antennaria virginica is a distinct species. After previously recognizing the taxon as a variety of A. neglecta, A. Cronquist (1945; H. A. Gleason and Cronquist 1991) agreed. It is a sexual progenitor of the A. howellii complex and is most closely related to A. howellii subsp. neodioica (Bayer 1985). Antennaria virginica is dioecious and is characterized by its relatively small, spatulate, basal leaves and subulate-tipped cauline leaves, which separate it from A. neglecta and the gynoecious A. howellii complex (Stebbins 1935; Bayer and Stebbins).

Dioecious. Plants 4–25 cm. Stolons 2–8 cm. Basal leaves 1-nerved, spatulate to cuneate-oblanceolate, 10–25 × 3–9 mm, tips mucronate, faces greenish gray, moderately pubescent. Cauline leaves linear, 4–20 mm, not flagged (apices acute). Heads 3–6(–9) in corymbiform arrays. Involucres: staminate 3.8–6 mm; pistillate 5–7 mm. Phyllaries distally white or stramineous. Corollas: staminate 2.2–3.5 mm; pistillate 2.8–4.5 mm. Cypselae 0.8–1.3 mm, slightly papillate; pappi: staminate 2.8–4(–5) mm; pistillate 3.5–5.2 mm. 2n = 28, 56.

Antennaria neglecta Greene var. argillicola (Stebbins) Cronquist; A. neodioica Greene var. argillicola (Stebbins) Fernald; A. virginica var. argillicola Stebbins

Antennaria virginica is a North American species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae known by the common names shalebarren pussytoes. It grows on Devonian shale in the eastern United States. It is found in central Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia, with a few populations in eastern Ohio.

Antennaria virginica grows up to 25 cm (10 inches) tall, spreading by horizontal stems that run along the surface of the ground. Male and female flower heads are borne on separate plants. One plant can have several heads in a flat-topped array.